IDAHO PILOT FOUND ON ISLAND

Paramedics with an air ambulance service rescued Friday night an Idaho pilot who had been stranded on Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake for nearly nine hours.

Dallen Ward, 31, Almo, Idaho, was rescued from the island at about 9 p.m. and was uninjured, said Tim Hines, a paramedic with AirMed. "He had a signal fire set on the beach to alert us."Hines said if it weren't for the fire Ward had built, they would have had a hard time finding him in the darkness. Ward apparently didn't have a radio.

Ward's business partner notified the Weber County sheriff's office of the missing pilot about 6 p.m. An AirMed crew flew to the island after it was notified.

Hines said the pilot damaged his plane when he landed on the island about 12:30 p.m. Friday and was unable to get it going again. The impact of the landing "bent the prop and severed the oil line," the paramedic said.

The pilot found shelter in an old sheep camp on the island and waited there for someone to notice the signal fire and come and get him, Hines said.